Connecticut western news., 1887-08-17
THE BIGGEST R. R. HORROR.
A BURNING BRIDGEDROPS NINE
 CROWDED CARS.
Of Five Hundred Hurt Over One
 Hundred Died on the Spot.

ol r1SC huuuECu I1uKV oNCA onS
 Hundred Died on the Spot.
 PEORIA, H., Aug. 11-An excursion train went through bridge near Chatsworth, H., early this morning and 15O people were killed or injured. The train, consisting of fifteen cars, left Bloomington last night for Niagara Falls on the Illinois Central, the intention be- ing to go by that road as far as Chatsworth, and from thence by way Qfst the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw road. The change was made at Chatsworth. and soon afterward, as the train neared Piper City, small town i'll Ford county, the bridge crossing the Vermillion River gave way, plunging the engine and sev- eral cars down steep embankment into the stream.
 It lacked only five minutes of midnight when the engineer found himself within 100 yards of the burning bridge. There, was no chance to stop. The speed of the train must have been terrific, for the first engine pas sed in safety, but the next engine went down, and instantly the work of death commenced. Car crashed into car, coaches piled one on top of another, and in the twinkling of an eye near ly 100 people found instant death and 50 more more were so hurt they could not live. As for the wounded they were everywhere. Only the sleeping coaches escaped, and as the startled and half-dressed passengers came tumbling out of them they found such scene of death as is rarely witnessed, and such work to do that it seemed as if human hands were utterly inc apable.
 Down in the ditch lay the second engineer, McClintock, dead, and Fireman Applegate badly injured. On top were piled the three baggage cars, one on top of another, like childs card house after he had swept it with his hand. Then came the six day coaches. They were telescoped as cars never were before, and three of them were pressed into just mounted off its trucks, crashed through the car ahead of it, crushing the woodwork like finder, and lay there resting on the tops of the seats, while every passenger in the front car was lying dead or dying underneath. Out of that car only four people came alive. On top of the second car came the third, and it's bottom was smeared with the blood of it's vic tims. The other three cars were not so badly crushed; but they were broken and twisted in every conceivable way, and every crushed tim Der and beam represented crushed human frame and broken bone.
 Instantly the air was filled with the cricis of the wounded and the shrieks of those about to die. The groans of men and the screams of women united to make an appalling sound, and above all could be heard the agon- izing cries of little children as in some in stances they lay pinned alongside their dead parents. And there was another terrible dan- ger yet to be met. The bridge was still on fire, and tho wrecked cars were lying on and around the fiercely burning embers. Every where in the wreck were wounded and unhurt men, women, and children, whose lives could be saved if they could be gotten out, but whose death, and death in most horrible form, was certain if the twisted wood of tho broken cars caught fire.
 And to fight the fir, there was not drop of water and only some 50 able-bodied men who still had presence of mind and nerve enough to do their duty. The only light was the light of the burning bridge. And with so much of it's aid the 50 men went to work to fight the James, For four hours they fought like fiends, and for four hours the victory hung i'll the balance. Earth was the only weapon with which the foe could be fought, and so the at tempt was made to smother it out. There was no pick or shovel to dig it up; no baskets or barrows to carry it, and so desperate were they that they dug their fingers down into the earth, which a long drought had baked almost as hard as stone, and heaped the precious handfuls thus hardly won upon the encroaching flames, and with this earthwork built handful by handful kept back the foe.
 While this was going on other brave men crept underneath the wrecked cars, beneath the fire and wooden bar which held as prison CTS so many precious lives, and with pieces of board, and sometimes their hands, beat back the flames when they flashed up alongside some unfortunate wretch, who, pinned down by a heavy beam, looked on helplessly, while it seemed as if his death by fire was certain. And while the fight was thus going on the ears of the workers were filled with the groans of dying men. the anguished entreaties of those whose death seemed certain unless the terri ble blaze could be extinguished, and the cries of those too badly hurt to care what manner the end was brought about, so only it would be quick. So they dug up the earth with their hands, reckless of the blood streaming out from broken finger nails, and heapcd it mp in little mounds, while all the while came the heartrending cry, ''For Gods sake don't let us burn to death." But finally the victory was won. The fire was put out after four hours of endeavor, and as its last sparks died away light came up in the east to take their place, and dawn came up on scene of horror While the fight had been going on, men had been dying, and there were not so many wounded to take out of the wreck as there had been four hours before. But in the meantime the country had been aroused. Help had come from Chatsworth, Forest and Piper City, and as the dead were laid reverently alongside of each other out in the cornfeld, there were ready hands to take them into Chatsworth, | while some of the wounded were carried to Piper City. One hundred and eighteen was l the awful poll of the dead, while the wounded l numbered four times that many. The full tale of the dead cannot, however, be told yet | for days.
 ''It was simply horrible" said Mir. E. A. l Van Zandt, of Peoria. ''No words of mine can describe the awfulness of the scene. was in the rear sleeper, and so was in no dan- | ger, as no one in the six sleepers was more | than shaken up. But even there we got a bad shake. I felt three distinct bumps, and then | rushed out of the car and ran forward to the
 wreck There the scene was horrible. The
 only light was the flames of the burning
 bridge, and above it the day coaches were l piled on top of one another in mass. The
 engine was buried in the ditch and the head
 less body of the engineer was underneath it.
 From all sides came groans and cries for aid,
 so we went to work, and we had to work hard | too If the wreck ever caught fire 300 people
 would have been burned to death, and the l only thing we could do was to smother the fire
 with dirt. It was hard and slow work, and took LIS four hours to do it, but we did it, and
 when the fire was out other help came, and we l got the dead and wounded out, and during l the morning carried them over to Chatsworth
 where we took what care of them we could"
 The most horrible death of all, perhaps, was
 that of Eugene McClintock, engineer of the
 second engine of the double-header. His en- | zine plunged down into the black hole, and as
 the tender mounted on top of the cab it took | McClintock ill the back of the neck and cut his head clean off his shoulders. The trunk was | found under the engine, but the head could | not be discovered, and the presumption is that
 it was ground to atoms in the horrible mill- | stones of the engine and the tender.
 A BATTLE AT A COAL MINE.
 Fierce Attack on the Men who Sup | planted Strikers.